I Heard It Through the Grapevine (album)

Infobox Album | Name = In the Groove/I Heard It Through the Grapevine
Type = Studio album
Artist = Marvin Gaye


Released = 1968
Recorded = 1967-1968
Genre = Soul
Length = 27:08
Label = Tamla
TS-285
Producer = Norman Whitfield
Ivy Jo Hunter
Frank Wilson
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gbfyxqw5ld6e link]
Last album = "You're All I Need" (with Tammi Terrell)
(1968)
This album = "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"
(1968)
Next album = "Marvin Gaye and His Girls"
(1969)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Reissue cover
Type = Studio album


Lower caption = Cover for 1969 reissue

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released August 26, 1968 on the Motown-subisdiary label Tamla Records. Originally released as "In the Groove", it was the first solo studio album Marvin released in two years, in which during that interim, the singer had emerged as a successful duet partner with female R&B singers such as Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. The album and its title track are considered both as Gaye's commercial breakthrough.

Conception

By 1968, Marvin Gaye had released only a few solo singles after 1965. Between his Kim Weston duet, "It Takes Two" and his Tammi Terrell duets, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Your Precious Love" among others, Marvin released only one single, "Your Unchanging Love", which peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Motown brought Marvin back to the studio to record a solo album. Recording difficulties aside, Gaye's vocals went through a transition through this period. Perhaps done on purpose, Marvin's newest collaborators Norman Whitfield and his pupil, Frank Wilson, began to write songs they felt fit the singer's chaotic personal life: Marvin's marriage to Anna Gordy was turbulent as was life on the road in which Marvin grew a constant dislike to live performances and his personal disagreements with Motown CEO Berry Gordy had started to create strain in his relationship with the Motown label.

On top of that, during an October 1967 engagement at Hampton Institute with Terrell, the younger Terrell collapsed from exhaustion into Marvin's waiting arms. Terrell was later diagnosed at the end of the year with having a brain tumor, which depressed Marvin. Some speculate Terrell's illness and subsequent death two and a half years later affected Gaye's performances in which he went from being a soul stylist in the same way his idol Sam Cooke had been into a more gospel-influenced soul vocalist who sounded more in par with Otis Redding, James Brown, and Temptations lead singer David Ruffin. Ironically during the recording of what would become Marvin's biggest-selling and signature single of his career, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", Whitfield decided to force Marvin to raise his vocal register higher than what he was used to, which Whitfield already tried successfully on Ruffin during the recording of the Temptations hit, "Ain't Too Proud to Beg". Though Marvin and Norman reportedly argued over the sessions of "Grapevine", Norman was able to get what he wanted from Marvin and the duo started a collaboration that lasted into the beginning of 1970.

When Whitfield presented "Grapevine" to Berry Gordy, the producer was stunned when Gordy turned it down sensing the song "wasn't a hit" and that "it sucked". Nevertheless, Whitfield released a version of the song by Gladys Knight & the Pips in an attempt to "out-funk Aretha Franklin's "Respect".

Release and reception

Gordy eventually agreed to allow "Grapevine" in the album, now titled "In the Groove". But Whitfield was still determined to get Marvin's version of the song released as a single. Motown instead issued the Ivy Jo Hunter-produced "You", which was recorded after "Grapevine" and showcased Marvin hollering in falsetto for the first time. Another single, "Chained", would peaked at number 32 on the pop chart. The song was climbing the chart - it eventually peaked at number 34 - when radio deejays began playing "Grapevine" much to Berry Gordy's chagrin. To everyone's surprise, when Gordy finally allowed the release of Marvin's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", the song blew up on the charts upon its October, 1968 release. By the end of the year, the song had hit number-one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot-Selling Soul Singles charts and by 1969 had reached number one on the UK Singles chart becoming Marvin's first international smash. Ironically when Gaye heard about its success, he acted coldly to it due to his depressed state over Tammi Terrell. He later told a biographer he felt the song's success was "undeserved".

Nevertheless, Motown re-released the album as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and due to the song's success, the album shot up to number 2 on the R&B albums chart and peaked at number 63 on the pop albums chart. Marvin's album wasn't the only album to be re-released after a hit single: in 1970, The Miracles' "Make It Happen" album, initially released in 1967, was re-released in 1970 as "Tears of a Clown", after that song hit number-one in the US and internationally. That same year, Diana Ross' self-titled debut album was re-released as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" after that song's success. Though Whitfield only produced just one song on the album (producers included Ivy Jo Hunter, Ashford & Simpson and Frank Wilson), Gaye and Whitfield will embark on a two-album collaboration together. Ironically after "That's the Way Love Is" became a hit for Gaye in 1969, Motown released the song a second time on the album of the same name. This album also marked Marvin's first attempts at producing himself in the studio with his own self-penned songs.

Track listing

#"You" (Jeffrey Bowen, Jack Coga, Ivy Jo Hunter) – 2:25
#"Tear It On Down" (Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson) – 2:35
#"Chained" (Frank Wilson) – 2:38
#"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield) – 3:14
#"At Last (I Found a Love) (Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover) – 2:37
#"Some Kind of Wonderful" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 2:19
#"Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever" (Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder) – 2:43
#"Change What You Can" (Gaye, Anna Gordy Gaye, Elgie Stover) – 2:37
#"It's Love I Need" (Stephen Bowden, Ivy Jo Hunter) – 2:54
#"Every Now And Then" (Eddie Holland, Frank Wilson) – 3:06
#"You're What's Happening in the World Today" (George Gordy, Robert Gordy, Allen Story) – 2:19
#"There Goes My Baby" (Benjamin Nelson, Lover Patterson, George Treadwell) – 2:24

Personnel

*Lead vocals by: Marvin Gaye
*Background vocals by:
**The Andantes
***Marlene Barrow
***Jackie Hicks
***Louvain Demps
**The Originals
***Freddie Gorman
***Walter Gaines
***Henry Dixon
***Joe Stubbs
***C.P. Spencer
*Instrumentation by: The Funk Brothers
*Production by: Norman Whitfield, Ivy Jo Hunter, Frank Wilson